Officials Of 2 Koreas Hold Talks In the South

By CHOE SANG-HUN

Published: August 23, 2009

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, sent a message of improving ties with South Korea through his high-level delegation, which met with the South's president, Lee Myung-bak, in Seoul on Sunday in the first major political meeting between the two Koreas in nearly two years, officials said.

The South Korean leader stressed the need for dialogue, his spokesman said.

The North Korean delegation was led by Kim Ki-nam, a secretary of the North's ruling Workers' Party, and Kim Yang-gon, the North's intelligence chief, who also handles relations with South Korea. The two are among Kim Jong-il's most trusted aides.

Unification Minister Hyun In-taek of South Korea, who met with Kim Yang-gon for 80 minutes on Saturday, had earlier said he hoped that the North Korean delegates' meeting with President Lee ''will become a turning point in South-North Korean relations.''

The North Korean delegation flew to Seoul on Friday to pay its respects to former President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea. Mr. Kim, a champion of inter-Korean reconciliation who in 2000 met Kim Jong-il, died Tuesday. The funeral was set for Sunday.

The trip was widely seen as an opportunity for Kim Jong-il to reach out to Seoul.

After months of raising tensions with nuclear and missile tests, North Korea has appeared to be shifting its tone in recent weeks.

North Korean officials met with former President Bill Clinton in Pyongyang, the North's capital, on Aug. 4, and then released two American journalists and a South Korean worker, all of whom had been held in the North for months on charges of committing hostile acts against the North.

Last week, North Korea lifted restrictions on cross-border traffic with South Korea.

In a separate meeting on Saturday with South Korean politicians and scholars, Kim Yang-gon suggested more economic ties between the two Koreas, voicing hopes of shipping some of the North's rich minerals to the South, Yonhap, a South Korean news agency, reported, quoting people who attended the meeting.

Relations between the North and the South have cooled since Mr. Lee took office in February 2008.

Mr. Lee vowed not to provide aid to the North unless it made concrete progress in dismantling its nuclear weapons program. The North lashed out by cutting off dialogue and calling him a ''traitor.''